Mad By Grief
by george's firework
Summary: They'd promised never to tell anyone; she'd promised not to abandon her husband for him and in return he'd promised to never leave her.


The bed seemed to sigh as Regulus rolled over and stood up, pausing in the doorway to look fondly at the tangled black hair which was spread over the pillow.

"Regulus, darling," she breathed and his fond smile grew. "Come back to bed." She rolled over and regarded him rather regally due to the fact that she was rather tangled up in the sheets. His eyes travelled slowly up her body, taking extra time on her beautiful curves, before stopped to rest on her face. Her large, dark eyes bored into his with an intense passion and he found himself stepping slowly towards the bed so he could capture her lips with his. She smiled against his mouth.

"That's more like it," she purred, ready to twist her hands into his soft, dark hair and pull him back down onto the bed when he pulled away from her and shook his head as if he was clearing it of all thoughts of returning to bed.

"I'm sorry, Bella love, but I must go. The Dark Lord has requested my presence at Malfoy Manor and we both know how he does not like to be disappointed." Bellatrix sighed in frustration and dropped back onto the bed, frowning up at him. He frowned playfully back, stooped to kiss her gently, and then disappeared out of the door leaving Bellatrix quite alone.

"Kreacher!" She called loudly and the aged house elf appeared with a crack a second later. He bowed low to her, averting his eyes so as not to gape at her less than dressed state. "Cook me up something for breakfast, please."

"Yes, Mistress Bella," he croaked and bowed again. "Is there anything else Mistress Bella wishes for?"

"Only to know if there is anyone else in the house?" Bellatrix questioned, knowing the elf only asked out of habit because he always knew what she would ask. Aside from Regulus and Kreacher, no one knew about the relationship. Kreacher shook his head.

"No, Mistress Bella. Nobody is in the house," he bowed low to her once more and then disappeared downstairs to prepare her breakfast. Bellatrix allowed herself to fall back against the pillows with a sigh, thinking about Regulus even as she twisted her wedding band around her finger.

They knew how wrong it was; Bellatrix was married, Regulus was ten years younger than she was, and they were cousins to top it all off but neither of them could really help it. Regulus was lonely – he would never admit it but he missed his elder brother – and Bellatrix didn't really love Rodolphus – she didn't really love anyone apart from their master for that fact. The two of them had just sort of come together and stayed like that. Neither of them could have put an exact date on when their little affair had begun but it had been going on since the summer before Regulus's sixth year.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud crack of Kreacher returning with her breakfast. He placed the laden tray on the table beside the bed and bowed low.

"Kreacher hopes that Mistress Bella enjoys her breakfast and that she will be alright on her own," Kreacher croaked and then noticed Bellatrix's questioning look. "Master Regulus requested that Kreacher meet him outside Malfoy Manor an hour after he left the house." She nodded and waved him away so she could eat her breakfast and dress in peace.

* * *

><p>Several long hours of lounging about later, Bellatrix was pacing in front of the crackling fire in the dining room, glancing anxiously out of the window at the pouring rain outside. The lamps in the room were darkened and the leaves swirling around outside were casting strange shadows on the wall but Bellatrix took no notice of them as she gazed avidly through the gloom of the square outside. There were small rivers of water running across the paving stones like ribbons and Bellatrix stopped her pacing and threw herself down onto the window seat, listening to the wind creak through the house in a near deafening way. It didn't completely block out the crack of Apparition though and Bellatrix threw herself from her seat and through the door of the dining room into the hallway. Her relief was short-lived as she noticed the small, hunched-over form of Kreacher standing alone in front of the door.<p>

"Where's Regulus?" Bellatrix shrieked as she hurried down the stairs. Kreacher had collapsed on the floor by the time she reached him and was tucking something into his filthy tea-towel even as he bent in half and began to howl in misery. "Kreacher, I order you to tell me where Kreacher is!" She dropped to her knees before the elf and shook him, knowing she wouldn't be able to coax anything from the elf.

"Kreacher cannot say," Kreacher wheezed, seizing his knees and curling up into a little ball of grief. "Master Regulus ordered Kreacher never to tell anyone." Bellatrix lurched to her feet and stormed up and down the corridor a few times, her glare never leaving the elf where he was balled up crying on the floor.

She knew he was dead. She could tell just by the way Kreacher was crying – house elves rarely cried and Kreacher had never cried for as long as he had been serving the Black house. Regulus had said that he had had a meeting with the Dark Lord this morning – had something happened? Now that she thought about it, Regulus had been acting rather strangely recently. She had barely seen him at the meetings and his mind always seemed to be elsewhere when she actually did see him there. Perhaps he had realised he was in over his head and tried to get out. Perhaps he had decided that he just wasn't cut out for being a Death Eater. Perhaps the Dark Lord had simply become bored of him – he had been known to have his followers dispatched if he tired of them.

But she refused to accept it. He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't be. He promised he'd never leave.

* * *

><p>It was of popular belief that Azkaban was what drove Bellatrix Lestrange completely mad. But that was wrong, as popular belief tended to be. Bellatrix had been driven mad long before she ever tortured the Longbottoms. Bellatrix Lestrange had been driven mad by the grief of losing one of the only people she cared about.<p> 


End file.
